Old photos of your heritage

[Zod]

Ran across an elementary school picture of my Granfather's class. It struck me how far the family has come in what is relatively short amount of time. He grew up literally dirt poor, notice not all the kids have shoes. Descendent of Irish immigrants, he worked in the coal mines, built his own house with his own hands, raised 5 kids with the help of a small farm in the summer.

 

 

 

It really is important to look back at these things from time to time and realize compared to my grand dad, I ain't poo.

[Captroop]

Here is my great-great-grandfather in the early 1900s:

 

 

He was an immigrant from Poland who made a living as a coal miner before getting started in Detroit auto.  And we've been in Detroit auto since the 1890s, including my cousin who is a GM design intern. My great grandfather designed the original corvette and came up with the idea for standardized body types.

[pstall]

i need to find the WW1 photo of my great grand dad on my mom's side. came back from that war and bought some land and farmed it and raised cattle till he died in his early 90's.

 

every summer we would go to his and other surrounding relatives houses and pick all we could from the garden. especially after my grand paw passed because he had a tremendous garden that kept us fed.

 

for Christmas, my great grand dad and my great uncle as a gift, would give each family tons of meat and pork that would last at least till the spring.

 

they didn't call it green or organic back then. they just did it.

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

I don't even know if there are photos around here anywhere. My mother's side is all French Canadian and they were dead poor, but my grandfather, who never learned to read or write, ended up building up a machine shop where they build machines for factories, and sold it off at a young age for millions. Now he's getting up there in age on a nice open property on the Connecticut river with a few boatyards and boat sales companies he owns.

 

On the other side, my family is all old tobacco, for 4 generations or something. My father was born in Zimbabwe and lived all over the world, from South America to Southeast Asia to all over Europe. Eventually settled here, still works with tobacco, etc etc.

 

It's all a pretty cool story on both sides when told in full, but I'm sure every American has an interesting story back in their lineage, since we obviously all originated from elsewhere. 

[stirs]

Ran across an elementary school picture of my Granfather's class. It struck me how far the family has come in what is relatively short amount of time. He grew up literally dirt poor, notice not all the kids have shoes. Descendent of Irish immigrants, he worked in the coal mines, built his own house with his own hands, raised 5 kids with the help of a small farm in the summer.

 

EPSON001.jpg

 

 

It really is important to look back at these things from time to time and realize compared to my grand dad, I ain't poo.

Notice the same bowl haircut on all the little girls. Man, a far cry from all the kids having cell phones and stuff. We are truly 100 times better off as far as "stuff" goes and the standard of living. You certainly have a correct view on these folks. Many of my extended family photos tell the same story. My dad was one of 10 kids and tells some incredible stories of food and shelter.

[KillerKat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dinwiddie

 

[nickzz]

both of my great grandparents from my father's side immigrated from italy @ ellis island which is pretty cool i guess

[CCS]

My great or great great grandfather with John F. Kennedy. 

 

 

 

 

[SmootsDaddy89]

I'm not posting pictures of my dad's dick you weirdo.

[Niner National]

i

Ran across an elementary school picture of my Granfather's class. It struck me how far the family has come in what is relatively short amount of time. He grew up literally dirt poor, notice not all the kids have shoes. Descendent of Irish immigrants, he worked in the coal mines, built his own house with his own hands, raised 5 kids with the help of a small farm in the summer.

 

EPSON001.jpg

 

 

It really is important to look back at these things from time to time and realize compared to my grand dad, I ain't poo.

I don't have any photos but sounds like we came from similar backgrounds. Family was from WV. grandfather was 1 of 13 children. Grew up on a small farm in the middle of nowhere. He worked coal mines for a short while before working on the railroad and finally retiring from a metal alloy fabrication company. Dirt poor.8th grade education.

 

 

 

My dad decided that wasn't the life he wanted for himself or his future children so he and my mom moved to Charlotte.

 

 

 

I researched my family history a bit a month ago and was able to trace it back to 1543. My family first immigrated here sometime between 1650 and 1670.

[davos]

 

I kid, I kid

[YourMomsLover]

My GGGG Grandpa Joel Johnson and his 2nd wife (boy isn't she a thing of beauty?)

[thefuzz]

Don't have too many to be honest.

 

Both grandfathers grew up dirt poor.  One side had 11 kids the other 8 or 9....I can't remember.

 

Both went into the army and went to war.  Neither graduated high school.  (fathers side finished his HS up a while back in his late 70's)

 

They worked and saved like crazy to provide a better way of life for their kids, and I'm happy that I got to meet both of them in my life.  Mothers side died when I was in 4th grade, fathers side is still kicking, living on the sound and fishing almost every day.

 

[YourMomsLover]

My great grandparents James Earl Johnson, and Ruby Lee Johnson